im 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



0 029 604 634 6 



Hollinger 
pH 8.5 
Mill Run F3-1955 




GtfimWHiST Inferences. 

A complete System of Instruction which will enable anyone to play 
the right card, and to instantly draw the correct inference 
from every possible play. Taught either by cor- 
respondence or by personal instruction, 



r. P. POSTER, 

AUTHOR OK "WHIST AT A GLANCE," <&c, 

917 MADISON AVENUE, BALTIMORE, MD. 



Copyright 1888, by R. F. Foster. 



DO YOU PLAY WHIST? 

Whist i.; essentially a partnership game. Every person who sits down to 
play it, owes it to the other players at the table to possess a fair knowledge of its 
elements. No one thinks of offering to join in a dance, with the steps of which 
they are not familiar ; but many persons sit down to the whist-table with the 
remark that they know little or nothing about the game ! 

It is remarkable that while so many books have been written, published, and 
read upon the art of playing whist, that so few persons should be able to put 
their teachings to any practical use. Long experience as a teacher of the gfame 
has conclusively proved to me that they cannot remember what is in the book 
when they sit down to the table for actual play ; because it has been presented to 
the mind in such a manner as to confuse, rather than assist. The feeble attempts 
to recall and use something of what they have read has occasioned much of the 
modern contempt for "book-players." Judgement, especially in whist, cannot 
be taught ; but to learn what to play from any and every possible combination of 
cards that you may hold, and to know at any stage of the game what has been 
played, is simply a problem of memory ; and the most important element of all, 
to rapidly draw correct inferences from the various plays, is a logical process, 
the premises of which entirely rest upon memory. Now, as memory does not 
depend upon any artificial system of recollection, but upon the strength with 
which impressions first come to the mind, it is necessary to ascertain and adopt 
the most impressive, and at the same time the simplest manner of presenting to 
the pupil the various plays and inferences of the game. In doing this one impor- 



FlM-5- 



tant element must be carefully kept in view which is very generally overlooked 
in problems of memory, (upon which subject I claim to be something of an 
authority), which is that the mind is not capable of seeing clearly or of compar- 
ing more than two ideas at a time, and of these one must be already familiar to 
us with which the other and unfamiliar one may be compared ; because if both 
are new to us we may not understand either of them, and cannot possibly remem- 
ber them. We know by experience that too many ideas at the same time in the 
mind weaken each other. If we try to think of too many things at once, we for- 
get everything. All writers on, and teachers of whist seem to be ignorant of this 
principle. They crowd upon the attention of the pupil a mass of wholly unfami- 
liar things, and give him in one sentence the rule and the exception ; the play 
and the reason for it ; the original and the forced lead ; the plain suits and the 

trrwnt; • +hf± fjrqt r>nrA to IpoH -jri rl the* QprnnH ■ tbe tmmo -giSTTVll ?vd f '">e 

" finesse ;" the echo and the discard ; the opening of the game and the consider- 
ations peculiar to grand coups. They simply preach whist, and it is not surpris- 
ing that so many persons abandon all hope of ever mastering the game after they 
have seen one of these books. Whist is a game that must be learned, and it can 
be both thoroughly and quickly learned by any person who is properly taught, 
The teacher must evolve the game for the pupil ; from the simplest elements, one 
thing at a time, all things in succession : and this must be done in such a manner 
that the pupil will not only understand perfectly every step in the process, but 
shall be able to use it with the utmost confidence and facility at the whist table. 

The common method of teaching whist by "bossing" the game, and inter- 
rupting it with a mixture of disconnected maxims and discouraging criticisms, 
will never make a whist player, unless the pupils' genius be such as to triumph in 
spite of such methods, not in consequence of them. No one ever learned Whist 
by any system of "talking across the board." Who would attempt to make a 
man a better preacher by interrupting and correcting him in the middle of his 
sermons ? For similar reasons one never learns to draw inferences by playing 
over the hands given in books. Somehow those hands never occur in actual 
play, or if they do, one does not recognize them, which is the same thing. 

Some persons do not possess the genius necessary to make great or brilliant 
players. But any person can thoroughly learn the fundamental principles of the 
game, can learn to draw inferences rapidly and correctly from each play as it 
occurs, and can learn to remember the fall of the cards, so as to avoid foolish 
errors himself, and at the same time render every possible help to a perhaps 
brilliant partner. Such a one will find himself welcome anywhere that whist is 
played, and will cause a smile of satisfaction to light up the face of any thorough- 
going whist player who cuts him for a partner. 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 

My method is briefly this : I have 5 Lessons, which are given to the pupil 
one at a time, either by correspondence or personal instruction. I begin, in the 
First Lesson, by showing that although any part of any suit of 13 cards may 
be dealt to him in 6,527,020,800 different ways ; by the time he has sorted his 
hand and arranged in order such of each suit as may have fallen to his share, he 
will find that of all these millions there are only a certain number of possible 



combinations which he can hold. I have reduced them to 32. I then show him 
the best use he can make of his hand, when he plays first or " leads." 

I do not trouble my pupils with a mass of philosophical reasons for certain 
leads or plays. I simply accept the universal agreement of all authorities that 
these plays are the best, and show my pupil an absolutely certain way of learning 
them, so that he will never forget them. To do this, it is not necessary to learn 
even the 32 combinations before alluded to. I have reduced the entire matter to 
four simple rules of about a dozen words each. I then teach him how to play 
the Third hand on his partner's lead, both independent of, and as altered by the 
play of the intermediate Second hand. 

In the Second Lesson I deal with the peculiarities of trumps and the continua- 
tion of suits, confining the pupil's attention, as before, to his pl&v jvs leader or 
as Third hand, showing him-h-ow-to rrt?re "and-takx auwmdgc ui, oi warning irOftr" 
the play of his adversaries on the suits which he and his partner are developing. 

In the Third Lesson these inferences are more thoroughly developed, and 
the first part of a complete and exhaustive system of exercises is introduced, by 
which the pupil is shown every possible inference that can occur at the game. 
This is divided into a consideration of such inferences as are possible only to 
the First hand ; only to his partner (Third hand) ; to both of them ; and those 
which are obvious to the whole table. This system of inferences is based upon 
a very careful study, on a plan entirely my own, of all the possible combinations 
a player can hold ; all the ways he can play them, and all the possible inferences 
which can be drawn from his play, either as first, second, third or fourth hand, 
by any or all the other players. The rapidity and certainty with which such in- 
ferences can be drawn when properly taught, would be incredible were it not a 
fact. 

In the Fourth Lesson the consideration of the adversaries' play is taken up ; 
that is, the play of the Second and Fourth hands, which is of course chiefly directed 
to preventing the establishment of the opponents' suits. Correct inferences by 
second and fourth hands as to what First and Third hands hold, and what they are 
trying to accomplish, constitute some of the finest points in the game. 

In the Fifth Lesson the practical application of the foregoing lessons to 
actual play is dealt with, and special attention paid to that great bugbear of 
whist players — how to remember what cards are out, and which is the best card 

of any suit. The inferences affecting the changing t tia^ '-*®£ J suits ,T 

placing the lead ; getting rid of the command, and the considerations affecting 
the play of the last few tricks, are all fully discussed. 

Throughout, I insist on all the exercises being gone over with the actual 
cards, in order to educate the eye and accustom it to the various combinations. 
The importance of this cannot be overestimated ; a person may read about cards 
forever, that will not enable him to identify them as they fall upon the table. I 
arrange the cards for all the exercises, and send complete sets to each pupil so 
that he loses no time in sorting out hands. They are arranged upon a peculiar 
system on which I have applied for a patent. They are ordinary playing cards, 
and their use is to train the eye and the understanding together. The result of 
their use is that when seated at the whist-table every possible hand the pupil can 
hold ; or play the others can make, is at once recognized as perfectly familiar ; the 
correct plays and inferences become automatic, leaving the mind free for the 
exercise of the judgement. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




0 029 604 634 6 



"fe SSONS. 

For single pupils, # 2 o.oo each. 

For classes of less than io pupils, ----- io.oo " 

For classes of io pupils or more, 5 . 0 o " 

Instruction gratis to any person sending me a class of more than io pupils. 

Special terms and arrangements for Personal Instruction to individuals 
or to classes. 




Members of correspondence classes may reside in different cities ; but names, 
addresses, and fees must be sent me through one organizer or secretary. After 
that I deal with each pupil individually. Immediately on receipt of the fees and 
names, blanks are sent to each pupil for signature. I teach my methods to 
pupils for their individual use only, and require them to agree not to disclose 
them, nor show my lesson-papers or exercises to others without first obtaining my 
consent. When these blanks are returned to me properly filled out, I send the 
first lesson of the course by return mail, and each succeeding lesson upon notifi- 
cation that the pupil has mastered the preceding one. There are no extra charges 
for lesson papers or cards, the fee covers everything. 

I am compiling, for gratuitous distribution, a Directory of the Whist clubs 
of the United States, and shall be obliged to anyone who will send me the names 
pf-snrh rinhc ;>nH th^jr officer's 

Address all communications and make all remittances payable to 



F. F, FOSTER. 917 Malison Aire., Baltimore, Id,, U. I A. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




0 029 604 634 6 



Hollinger 
pH 8.5 
Mill Run F3-1955 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




0 029 604 634 6 



Hollinger 
pH 8.5 
Mill Run F3-1955 



